Improved whiffletree



I. D. FLANAGIN.

Whiffletree.

Patented Oct. 10, 1865.

Inventor:

'UNITED STATES PATENT CF1-rca ISAAC I). FLANAGIN, OF CRESCO, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVED WHIFFLETREE.

Speciication forming part of Letters Patent No. 50,347, dated October 10, 1865.

' To all 'whom it 'may concern:

Beitknown that I ,Isaac DFLANAGIN, ofthe village of Ceresco, in the township ot Marshall, county of Calhoun, and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Arrangementof WhiftletreesandModeof Hitching to them, and I do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the same,ret`erence being had to the annexed drawings, making a part ot' this specification, in which-- Figure l is a plan view. side elevation.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all of the figures.

Thisinvention relates to an improved mode of arranging whifiietrees or equalizers and hitch- Fig. 2 is a detail ing to the same for ordinary use with vehicles or plowing or for other agricultural use, by which Iclaim to secure important advantages, but especially in plowing with a three-horse team, which is so deservedly in vogue among farmers at present.

To enable others to construct and use my invvention,I will now proceedto describe the same,

promising that as the general arrangements consist of well-known parts not requiring any special mode ot' construction I do not deem it v necessary7 to give a very minute description of them or their relative proportions in detail, as these can readily be determined by the usual modes of calculation familiar to every aritizan.

Fig. l represents the arrangement for plowing with three horses.

The double-tree (shown at A) is constructed, ironed, and connected with the plow in the ordinary manner. An equalizing single or whifiie tree, B, is connected by means ot' the clasphook and eyebolt C to each end of the doubletree. Near the inner end ot' each of the whifiietrees B B a short equalizer, E, usually about one toot 1n length, 1s pivoted by an ordinary clasp and pivot-bolt. rEhe tugs or traces are indicated at T. The outer traces of the nigh and off horses are hooked to the outer ends of the whietrees B B in the usual way, but their inner traces and those of the middle horse are hooked to the short equalizers E E in such manner that they cross each other. As this arrangement subjects the inner ends of the whifetrees B B to a double strain they must be connected with the double-tree at such a point from their centers as to compensate by the unequal leverage for such additional strain.

I will say here that I make the short equalizers adjustable by extra bolt-holes or by any other of the well-known ways, so as to give the poor horse of the team the advantage ot' increased leverage. All the arrangements of whiftletrees known to me as hitherto in use for plowing' with three horses abreast have this common defect, that the horses must be crowded together too closely; or, if they are spread apart with space to work properly in, then the double-tree is required to be of an inordinate length. Either condition causes the plow to run too much to land, which requires incessant twisting to counteract,and materially increases the labor ot' the plowman.

It will be seen that by crossing the traces to the short equalizers E E, I am enabled with an ordinary length of double-tree to give ample spread to the team, which effectually corrects any such tendency to run to land, and gives in addition superior facilities for equalizing the respective powers ot' the horses composing the team.

The crossing of the traces has not hitherto in practice produced any rubbing effect at all detrimental; but, if it should, I propose to substitute for the straight evener E in Fig. l one illustrated in Fig. 2, having its inner end bent down, as at m, over the rounded end ot' the whietree B, to be made of iron.

To adapt my arrangement to a two-horse tea-m with the same double-tree, the whiftletrees B B and connecting-irons are removed, and one of the short equalizers E is pivoted in a suitable iron in the middle of the double-tree. The outer traces are hitched to hooks attached at the ends ot the double-tree, and the inner traces are crossed and hooked to the short equalizer E as for three horses, and as exhibited by the dotted lines.

In the arrangement patented in 1864byJohn Graham, ot' Ceresco,Michigan, where the outer traces are hitched to the double-tree ends as proposed by me for two horses, Mr. Graham, it is true, introduces a roller which is free to turn, and to which my short evener may be said to be a mere equivalent; but by my arrangement I accomplish entirely new and superior results in addition-viz., additional freedom to work between the horses shoulders, the ability to divide the advantage to either horse ou both sides of him, and the avoidance ot' the necessity of troublesome alterations in the lengths of the traces. or a specialconstructiou of the modified double-tree.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

'.lhe employment of crossed traces connected to a short adjustable equalizer, E, when used iu combination with theequalizing-whifetrees B B and double-tree A, and constructed and arranged substantially as and for the purposes herein described and set forth.

ISAAC D. FLANAGIN.

Witnesses:

HENRY DRAKE, GEORGE J oHNsoN. 

